April Gardening While Stuck At Home

It's been quite some time since my last blog post. I've been taking a college course on women's ministry and just decided I couldn't do both at the same time. However, given the current circumstances concerning Covid 19, I thought a bit of gardening motivation was in order. One of the most therapeutic things for me has been the warm Spring weather and getting my hands dirty in the garden. You can benefit from this too. We're all stuck at home for the most part and gardening is a hobby that has a multitude of benefits, not the least of which is fresh food. Here are some ways you can be busy in your garden now.

First, it's not too late to plant spring veggies. Lettuce, spinach, kale, peas, carrots and onions all prefer cooler weather and it's not too late to plant them, but don't wait too much longer. Once the hot summer weather kicks in, your spring veggies will be done. Everything I listed above is really easy to start from seeds with the exception of onions. I recommend buying onion sets instead. You can find seeds and onion sets at Walmart, Lowes and other hardware stores, and garden centers. Just be sure to check that your local garden center is still open.



Second, you can get your garden ready for summer planting in a few weeks. Summer veggies include tomatoes, peppers, squash and beans. This means pulling out any weeds and pulling off the winter mulch. It's also a good time to make any repairs to your raised beds and trellises. You can also add amendments to your soil - like compost or manure to enrich your garden.

Third, if you haven't already done so, go ahead and clean up your perennial beds. Pull out last years dead growth and any weeds that have sprung up. You can also freshen up the mulch if you wish.

Be aware that all perennial plants- whether herbaceous perennials, bushes or trees- will wake up to Spring at different times. Don't panic if a particular plant hasn't started to show signs of new growth yet. It might just not be ready.

So go ahead and try your hand at gardening. The fresh air, sunshine, and soil will do you a world of good. Feel free to post pics of your garden in the comment section below.

Why Bare Ground Is Bad for Your Garden

Even after years of gardening growing up, one thing that I never realized was bad for the garden was bare ground. What do I mean? When you clear all the weeds and plants in a section of garden and then leave it empty so you can see the bare ground.  Mind you, my hard, clay soil makes this abundantly obvious when it develops deep cracks as it dries out but even if you have great soil, it's still not good to leave it bare - especially in the summer heat. Here's why.

1. Erosion: Any soil amendments and fertilizer you've put on your garden bed are likely to wash away in a summer downpour.

2. Heat: Bare ground heats up quickly which repels garden helpers like worms and other beneficial microbes.

3. Compaction: Bare ground will bake and get really hard so when you do want to plant something, it will be very difficult. This is especially true if you have clay soil like I do.

So what should you do instead? You can help your soil by covering it up in one of the following ways:

1. Mulch: Put any kind of non-treated organic matter and dump it on your empty space of ground until you are wanting to use it again. Anything from straw and grass clippings to pulled weeds. Seriously, I've temporarily got a pile of dead pea plants piled up in a part of my garden where I plan on planting fall crops in another month. Couldn't be easier or cheaper.

2. Cover Crops: These are plants like clover or buck wheat that help build your soil and keep it cool and covered while you're not using it. You can find seeds for this at most garden centers.

3. Let the weeds go: The caveat here is that you cant' let them go so long they go to seed and get out of hand. Even then, it's still probably better to leave some weeds than to let your ground go completely bare for long.

Keep in mind that nature abhors a vacuum. The only time you see bare ground in nature is in a dessert and we certainly don't want our gardens to resemble that. So do yourself a favor and keep your garden covered as much as you can and it will greatly improve your soil over time.

Identifying Weed Seedlings

Did I plant this? It's generally easy to tell once the plant is large enough to bloom but what about when they're just seedlings? One of the most common frustrations I hear from beginner gardeners is the difficulty in telling what is a vegetable or flower seedling and what is just a weed that needs to be removed.

Even I can't always tell for sure what a plant is when it's only a few inches tall but there are some weeds that are so common I know them when I see them and I can promptly pull them out. Here are six very common weed seedlings that you can always pull out at any size. Interestingly enough, these pictures all came from my daughters flower bed. Guess we should be pulling weeds...

Lambs Quarters, It's edible but you definitely didn't plant it.

Dandelions, They're also edible but you didn't plant them either.

Grass

Plantain, No relation to the fruit in the grocery store.

Oxalis or Clover, probably the easiest to identify.

Pig Weed or Red Root

Well, I hope that helps you in your weeding endeavors. Feel free to post your weeding tips in the comments below!